views:

5094

answers:

6

I have a form with a textbox and a button. IE is the only browser that will not submit the form when Enter is pressed (works in FF, Opera, Safari, Chrome, etc.). I found this javascript function to try to coax IE into behaving; but no avail:

function checkEnter(e){
    var characterCode
    if (e && e.which) {
        e = e
        characterCode = e.which
    } else {
        e = event
        characterCode = e.keyCode
    }
    if (characterCode == 13) {
        document.forms[0].submit()
        return false
    } else {
        return true
    }
}

Implementation:

searchbox.Attributes("OnKeyUp") = "checkEnter(event)"

Any advice?

EDIT: This page on CodeProject outlines what Dillie was saying, and it works perfectly.

+2  A: 
// Use the following Javascript in your HTML view
// put it somewhere between <head> and </head>

    <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"><!--
    function KeyDownHandler(btn)
    {
      if (event.keyCode == 13)
      {
        event.returnValue=false;
        event.cancel = true;
        btn.click();
      }
    }
    // -->
    </script>

    // Put this in your TextBox(es) aka inside <asp:textbox ... >
    onkeydown="KeyDownHandler(ButtonID)"
TravisO
Thanks for the input, it throws a lovely 'Object doesn't support this property or method' error, however :(
Anders
This solution worked great for a similar problem I had in a jsp page.
oneBelizean
A: 

Does it use a GET instead of a POST? Is the URL too long? I've seen that...

Corey Trager
+11  A: 

The other thing I have done in the past is wrap the form area in a Panel and set the DefaultButton attribute to the submit button you have. This effectively maps the enter key to the submission as long as you have a form element in focus in the panel area.

Dillie-O
will adding a panel mess with my formatting?
Anders
Nope, it wont (answered my own question). This worked, thanks! :D
Anders
Glad it worked. The nice caveat with this too is that if you have multiple forms on the page (say various options to search by), you can wrap a panel around each one of them and then the proper submit button is properly "mapped".
Dillie-O
Good answer. This is something that I think not many asp.net developers know about.
metanaito
Definitely a great answer, upvote this guys!
Anders
this solution creates a javascript function. Is there a way to solve this problem so that its accessible?
skyfoot
A: 

Basically, a form needs either a button, input type="submit" or an input type="image" to enable the builtin behaviour to submit a form on enter. You shouldn't need a javascript to submit it.

jishi
+9  A: 

Just create a text input in a hidden div on the page. This will circumvent the IE bug.

Example div:

    <!-- Fix for IE bug (One text input and submit, disables submit on pressing "Enter") -->
    <div style="display:none">
         <input type="text" name="hiddenText"/>
    </div>
I great solution as this is accessible unlike the panel solution which relies on javascript
skyfoot
A: 

When using display:none, IE won't see the button and therefore won't be able to use it to submit the form. Instead, you could use z-index and absolute positioning to hide it under another element, e.g. with the style:

position:absolute; bottom: -20px; left: -20px; z-index: -1;

Now it'll still be there, usable by IE, but hidden beneath another element.

Alec